The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-05
NEW YoRK pREssaEAKERs.
A Business Which Requires Il Good
Deal of Talent

The above is an Involuntary tribute on
my part to small modistes establishment
ON Fifth avenue.
"A few years ago Miss Van Horne-her
name in everyday life has bona fide Knick-
erbocker ancestry and begins with a Van,
though it does not end with a Horne-was
the pink of fashion and belonged within
the charmed circle of the Astors. Desper-
ate ruin overlook her father; and, instead of
sitting down in the dust of her fallen for
tunes and pouring ashes on her Inundated
bead, the Knickerbocker heiress became the
dressmaker's apprentice, and, after year
or two spent in the chrysalis state, expand
ed her wings as Nile. Marie -, the dash
standing for an adopted French patronym-
ic, and now manages a four-story, brown
stone establishment on the avenue.
Miss Van Horne was gifted girl and
Mile. Marie has thrown the energy of a
dozen women into her business. She has
manners that would charm the proverbial
bird off the time-honored tree. She fits
every gown with her own taper fingers and
throws talent that might have made an
artist-her brother is painter-into its con-
ceptlon. Her diapers and trimmers are
French, and the rooms where her acuuain-
tance-customers await her pleasure are those
of deniZen of refined swelldom without a
hint of trade. There are one or two gems
of etchings, a either and a mandolin, a
dainty arrangement of flowers, tete-a-tete
service in exquisite porcelain, and the latest
novel flung upon a couch
Mile. Marie is a brave and sensible wom-
an. She understands her day and genera
tion-and she is worth something like half
million.
Dresslnaking in New York, in its higher
branches, is q business that calls for talent
and can easily employ genius. 1t has for
tunes in it, and fortunes are being harvested
mt al ha has
dressed and the most exacting in matters of
dress in the world. They do not grudge a
good price to those who prepare their tri-
umphs for them.
The high priests and priestesses of the
world of fashion are supposed to serve for
eign shrines. The great dressers of New
York society are imagined to run over to
Europe once OF twice year to procure
some of the wonderful creations of Worth
or his rival, Pingat, to wander from Felix
to Mangus- Baronne and to inspect the latest
thing out at Nine. Laferrierres'
As a matter of fact, if you can't see style
in New York itself you can't see it any
where, and some gowns which their wearers
suppose to have been imported are in bet
Ter taste than if they really had smeled salt
water
A lady whose gowns are one of the stock
attractions at the box show of the Metro.
politan Opera House ON opening nights
HItDpSu
known modiste and importer of Paris robes
no long time since. She wanted some
"'confection" in the line of a reception dress.
from Worth if possible. Madame thought
she could suit her.
Have you finished that green and black
plush combination was the question she
flung at her head dressmaker minute
after, breathless with hasty run up
stairs.
YES"
"Well, put Worth belt into it and bring
it down stairs as soon as you can"
That Worth belt-dressmakers keep
stamped belts in stock from all the better
known Paris houses-sold the gown to a
woman who would not have looked at it if
she had not supposed it was imported, and
made it fetch $50, where as the product of
home talent it might have brought SIPS.
The dressmaker, whose work the gown
was and who has never seen Worth or
Paris, told me the tale and vouched for its
accuracy; in truth the trick is not an I'm
common one. -.--..'.
There are not less than 20, 900 dressmakers
in and about New York and Brooklyn, and
if one counts the women employed on
dresses in the factories and the slop shop
workers for the wholesale clothing dealers,
the number would be increased by many
thousand more. Dressmaking is a good
business. and there are few trades, if any,
wages.
Dressmaking as a fine art is profession,
or rather it includes two or three profess
sions. 1t takes brains. 1t takes an eye for
form, an eye for color, a knowledge of fab
RIGS and their capabilities, and it takes an
artists instinct and an artists executive
ability.
"If l had daughter with her bread and
butter to earn | would make dressmaker
of her" ....
The speaker was the modiste in charge of
the order room of one of the city's big
shopping stores
'Will you tell me how much of an APP
premiership to the business one has to serve
and what it pays" L questioned by way of
reply
year round, )" the modiste went on. eve
make no dresses for sale in the general
stock, but get up walking gowns; matinee
and evening gowns to order for society
women and others. 1t is not an easy mat
ter to get good dressmaker when we want
them, and every woman here earns good
wages if she chooses"
"What is the first step in learning the
trader pushed the inquiry.
Il like to get for an apprentice we'll
educated, quick, alert girl of ID or 49, was
the reply. "For three months | pay her
nothing, and she does very Gttlc in return.
one learns more WIN Der eyes IMAM Win her |
fingers in that time. She is expected to OBJ |
serve what is going on and how it is going
on, and l give her what small jobs she can |
be trusted with. Julie, come here"
Julie was the youngest apprentice, a |
round little creature with short, curly black |
hair, fresh cheeks and swapping eyes
II am putting belt INTO this bodice, y and |
she held up her work, land sometimes put |
IN tapes to hang up a dress by, and some
times | make pocket for some one else to
put In"
THAT is stepnumber one, my informant
continued.
''Step number two is taken when girl be-
comes sufficiently skilled to be trusted to |
make the plain under dress, which is the |
basis of all dressmaking nowadays. She !
sews up the long straight seams. She puts
on the facing and the braid.
"Step number three advances the girl to
the making of trimmings She doesn't cut
the material, yeu will understand. All that |
is planned and arranged for her; she only !
puts together what some one else has blocked |
out.
"When she takes step number four she is |
allowed to put the draperies on the skirt.
The draper has previously designed the fall |
of every fold and cut the material indicat-
ing just how it is to go. The younger hand
does the needlework necessary to adjust it